L.A. teacher on Australian expedition

Wendy Gorton, a teacher at Hancock Park Elementary School, writes from Australia, where she is on a National Geographic trip for teachers and children:

"Pay attention to the moments," Annie Griffiths Belt, a 30-year National Geographic photographer, told a roomful of 15 eager kids, their Nikon digital SLRs gripped in their hands like precious stones. The moments were plenty as we ended our first official day of the National Geographic Kids Hands-On Explorer Challenge Expedition to Australia.

Joshua Stitzinger, the other teacher winner from Philadelphia who crafted an Australian geography lesson to earn his ticket, looked on with me at the budding photographers learning from a seasoned pro. You know the moment as a teacher when you feel a student get sparked and hooked onto something? It's like a train getting on its correct tracks, snapping into place on its path -- I could feel these children's life purpose getting calibrated right in front of me and their parents, who are accompanying them on this amazing journey.

It's a feeling that should be commonplace in the classroom as we expose students to the many moments of their lives and the opportunities that abound for them.

In the conference room in Port Douglas, about 50 miles from Cairns on the East Coast and across the International Date Line for all of us, Annie urged the children to not only pay attention to moments, but to also to let light guide their compositions.

Our morning began with light hiding behind tropical storm clouds, but it broke through as we had "Breakfast with the Birds" at the Rainforest Habitat park, a jungle in the Queensland "Wet Tropics" area. As we tried Vegemite and exotic fruits such as the tamarillo, lorakeets playfully swooped down to try to get a nibble. We walked near the endangered southern cassowary, light trickling onto its bony head and the student photographers snapping photos of these rare birds. Students tried blending in and kneeling, which Annie says is less threatening whether your subjects are animals or people, and they snagged some fantastic shots of crocs and pythons and a host of birds. The student explorers are going to be capturing moments with diverse wildlife -- Australia is home to about 7% of the Earth's species -- for two weeks.

Tracy from Tourism Queensland conducted our movements the last two days with finesse and fun Aussie terms, ushering us onto the coach from the Rainforest Habitat and reminding us to bring our "togs" (swim trunks) for our next destination: the Great Barrier Reef.

The light burst through for photos of a new kind as we boarded the Wavedancer, a 30-meter catamaran and set sail for the Low Isles-- passing where Captain Cook ran the Endeavor into coral. Annie also talked about the importance of patterns in photography, and we were ready to see some of the greatest patterns in nature in the largest reef system in the world, home to more than 2,000 fish species.

Abbie Olson,  a student winner from Lewiston, Idaho, sported her "Dive Crew" T-shirt proudly, and with good reason: She, along with several other student explorers, National Geographic employees and Josh and I, "discovered" SCUBA as we were guided down below with a certified diver who took care of the nitty gritty of diving and made sure we could breathe into our regulators and equalize the pressure of our ears, and we floated past sea turtles, soft and hard corals, and even caressed a giant clam. Children as young as 8 can "discover" SCUBA, and many of the other student explorers snorkeled and saw the underwater world from a bit higher. Our own Southern California islands --Catalina and the Channel Islands -- offer great subject matter for students. I hope that many of our own students someday get an opportunity to breathe underwater and see the moments, lights, and patterns near home.

Annie's most important photographic tip of our first two days: "Spend some time seeing something in your own unique way." I urge you help your students do the same. Grab a camera yourself and try to make an ordinary scene become yours. For inspiration, you can check out Annie's book, A Camel, Two Kids and a Camera. You can also follow the trip along on the kids' blog at National Geographic Kids.